Mexico telecoms bill has powers to tame Slim, Televisa

25

Mar

2014

By Christine Murray and Tomas Sarmiento MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexicos government on Monday proposed giving a new regulator wide-reaching powers to police the operations of dominant telecommunications companies and TV broadcasters, right down to their prices and discounts. The bill sent to Congress fleshes out a constitutional reform approved last year that seeks to curb the power of phone mogul Carlos Slim and the countrys top broadcaster, Televisa. The regulator, the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT), will have sweeping powers to order companies to sell assets, revoke concessions and share networks and infrastructure, according to the bill sent to the Senate. Mexicos two main opposition parties, however, said in a joint statement later on Monday that the proposal would curtail the power of the IFT and instead empower the executive branch for political purposes. The statement was signed by the conservative National Action Party and the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, rivals of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.